The Department of History at Bogazici University cordially invites you
to a
lecture by
*Prof. Dr. Ebba Koch*
University of Vienna
Austrian Academy of Sciences
*The Imperial Image in Mughal History Painting for Shah Jahan
(1628-58)*
Organized within the framework of the “Connecting Art Histories
Initiative”
supported by the Getty Foundation
Tuesday, November 13, 2012, 17:00
Rectorate Conference Hall, Bogazici University
The lecture examines how history painting created for the Mughal
emperor*
* Shah Jahan (ruled 1628-58) expresses his ideology of rule with
purely
visual means. Shah Jahan was not only the builder of the Taj Mahal
but
also a patron of highly ambitious and masterful paintings. The
images
of the Windsor Castle *Padshahnama*, the great history of his reign,
emerge in the analysis as complex artistic creations, which in
their
ambition and dialectic reach out far beyond their apparent function,
to
illustrate a historical narrative in the tradition of Islamic and
Indian
book painting. Programmatic statements were expressed with aesthetic
means; the stylistic quality can serve as an interpretational key.
With
its close connection between form and content Shahjahani painting
shows
itself as a methodological exemplar of general art historical
relevance.
*Dr. Ebba Koch *is professor at Vienna University and a senior
researcher
at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Professor Koch was visiting
professor at Harvard (2008/09), Oxford (2008), Sabanci University
(2003),
the American University in Cairo (1998) and she held an Aga Khan
Program
for Islamic Architecture Fellowship at Harvard (2002). Between 2001
and
2004 she was global advisor to the Taj Mahal Conservation
Collaborative,
and she was the Austrian delegate to the “Network of Comparative
Empires”
of the European Commission (COST Action 36, 2005-2009).
Prof. Koch has conducted major surveys on the architecture of the
Mughals
in the Indian subcontinent, focusing on the architecture of Shah Jahan
(1628-58). Her research interests are Mughal art and architecture,
conservation of monuments, the political and symbolic meaning of art
and
intercultural connections between the Mughals, their neighbouring
countries
and Europe. Her publications *include Mughal Architecture *(1991),
*Mughal
Art and Imperial Ideology* (2001), and *The Complete Taj Mahal and the
Riverfront Gardens of Agra *(2006) which has become the standard work
on
the subject. She has co-authored with Milo Beach and Wheeler
Thackston, *King
of the World: The Padshahnama: An Imperial Mughal Manuscript from the
Royal
Library, Windsor* Castle (1997).
--
Nilay Ozlu
Bosphorus University